Breaking Tradition
by Comesailaway27
Summary: Generation after generation, Potter and Malfoy boys have fallen in love and been torn apart. However, after countless lectures from family portraits, Scorpius is sure he knows where they went wrong, and he's sure he knows how to keep his Potter.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is the prologue to the story coming up. I was graciously granted permission to borrow it from Regina Artemis DeLuna, who wrote it for her story A Cycle of Heartbreak: Fire and Ice. You should go read it, and I know she was talking about creating a series of spin-off oneshots, so check those out too! There's a reason there are no first names in this… it could be any Potter/Malfoy duo. You know what they say… Potters are suckers for red-headed women. And Malfoys, apparently ;) **

_"Malfoy! Malfoy? Come back here!" yelled Potter frantically._

_Malfoy whirled around to face him and snarled._

_"Why, Potter? Why? So I can have you ridicule me in front of your idiotic friends and call me evil, when you know damn well that I have no intention of going dark now or ever?" he spat, hurt and anger mingling in his slate gray eyes._

_He crossed his arms and glared at him._

_Potter looked torn between defending his friends and pleading with his secret lover of three years._

_"Malfoy..." he whispered, his love for the blond boy in front of him winning, "I love you...but I can't let my friends know...I mean, you know how they'd react...I couldn't bear to lose them..."_

_"So you'd rather lose me?" cried the Slytherin, emotion choking his voice and filling his eyes._

_"NO!" yelled the Gryffindor, then softer, "No, of course not..."_

_"Then what are you implying?" asked Malfoy coldly._

_The black haired boy grew frustrated._

_"I'm not implying ANYTHING!" he yelled._

_"Oh really?" said Malfoy, his gray eyes narrowing._

_"Yes! Really!" yelled Potter._

_"Then tell me this," said Malfoy suddenly, "If you had to choose...if you absolutely had to choose...who would you choose: your friends, or me?"_

_Potter's eyes widened._

_"That," he said, through gritted teeth, "Isn't fair!"_

_Malfoy only glared icily at the other boy._

_"Tell me, Potter, tell me," he hissed, "Because now I want to know."_

_Potter's eyes narrowed, recognizing the challenge in the blond's voice, and his quick, rash Gryffindor temper flared._

_"And what if you don't like the answer to that question?" he demanded._

_Shock and hurt flashed in his lover's gray eyes before his face once again became a cool mask of deceptive indifference._

_"Then, we're through," he snarled, "So, what's it gonna be? Me, or them?"_

_Potter took a step back, surprised at the blonde's persistence. _

_"Potter..." said Malfoy, warningly, when he didn't answer right away._

_Potter looked down, defeated._

_"I can't answer that, Malfoy," he said softy._

_Malfoy glared at the Gryffindor cooly._

_"Why?" he spat._

_"Because," growled Potter, "If I say them, I lose you, and if I say you, I lose them, and I couldn't bear either."_

_"Sometimes life requires risks and sacrifices, Potter," said Malfoy coldly, "You should know that by now..."_

_"And what if I don't want to take the risk! Huh? What then Malfoy? What then?" yelled the black haired boy._

_"Then," said the Slytherin softly, "Then maybe we shouldn't be together."_

_Potter's eyes widened._

_"But—" he started._

_"Look," cut in the blond, "If you don't know what or who you want, then maybe we aren't meant to be!"_

_Malfoy smiled a bitter, sardonic smile and then added, "Maybe we were NEVER meant to be. This always WAS a fucked up relationship, was it not?"_

_"No, Malfoy, I—"_

_"Don't say it Potter," Malfoy yelled suddenly, losing his cool, "Don't you dare tell me you love me, because I don't believe it!"_

_Potter just looked at him in shock._

_"Please, just listen—" he began, but Malfoy once again cut in._

_"You know what? Don't bother!" he cried, tears suddenly filling his gray eyes, "I've always known, that deep inside, you don't really care..."_

_"Malfoy—" _

_"NO!" he yelled, "Just don't! You don't love me, and I don't love you! So why don't you just go back to your red-haired whore and fuck her like you always do."_

_Potter looked at him with shock and hurt before his face hardened._

_"You know what?" he hissed angrily, "Fine! Just don't come crying back to me when you get your heart broken by that money grubbing Slytherin bitch!"_

_Malfoy drew in a sharp breath, "Don't worry, I won't!"_

_Potter growled, and with one final look at his lover, turned on his heal and walked away, leaving a broken hearted Slytherin behind._

**A/N: Great, right? I cried the first time I read it. If you've read both, you'll have noted I changed one line and random pronouns. After this though, it's all my writing! I'm going to attempt to post at least once a week, I know I hate when I have to wait ages for a story to update… **


	2. He Really Missed That Boy

**A/N: I am so, so, so sorry. If anyone bothered to put this on their alerts, I'm updating over 2 weeks past when I said I would. I'm awful. I give you full permission to hate me. *hides face***

**Now this is my writing. Not my characters (that honor belongs to JK), but ehh. It's also un-betaed, so forgive the fact that there are grammar errors and probably factual inconstancies. This is short, but the next chapter is longer and almost done **

**Chapter One: He Really Missed That Boy**

Scorpius Malfoy sat half-way down the portrait hall in Malfoy manor, staring intently at the painting-person before him. His great-great-grandfather, Xavier Malfoy, was avidly retelling the story of his tragic relationship with Charles Potter while Scorpius took notes as if he had a NEWT on the dead man's words. Starting at the end of his 6th year, the traditionally Slytherin Malfoy began spending a considerable amount of time with the paintings of his ancestors. After allotting about 3 days on each relationship, Scorpius amassed a stack of notes on all past Potter/Malfoy relationships up to Xavier. He still had to get through Abraxas Malfoy, an easy one if Scor were to guess, before he reached his grandfather. Lucius was the only interview he wasn't looking forward to. According to the other members of the Hall, the most recently deceased Malfoy was also the most bitter about his Potter experience. _Of course, _Scorpius thought, _he certainly had a right to be. God, to discover the man you most admired killed the man you most loved_. He shook his head and returned his attention to Xavier.

"Now, Charlie and I loved each other, no one would contest that. The Room of Requirement became our favorite place our last year in school, if you catch my drift lad" The spry older man laughed and winked from his frame. While it really grossed him out to think of the older man doing anything sexual, Scor made sure to file away the information about the Room of Requirement; that could come in quite handy when he finally wooed his Potter. His Potter. Scorpius was in danger of becoming like those horrid girls that wrote their crush's name on everything, but damn if he didn't like putting those words together. "I think our biggest problem came when he realized I was still going to marry the girl my parents had picked out for me. I wasn't willing to risk it all with him, and he wasn't willing to risk it all by himself. We just fell apart from there. It was all fights and anger and secrets. We kept all our love hidden inside out of fear, and it ate us up. I loved that pig-headed bastard more than anything in the world, and I lost him because I was too much of a coward to just bloody tell him that." Xavier's mood sobered quickly, and the man seemed dangerously close to tears for a Malfoy. This was pretty much the same story he'd gotten from everyone else, save a few changes. The oldest paintings had informed him that the biggest issue in most of the early relationships was the wizarding world's homophobia, which thankfully the youngest Malfoy wasn't forced to deal with. The world had become much more accepting as of late. However, they all had a common problem regardless of time: the Malfoy in the relationship always chose the life of a pureblood over a life with his love.

"Thanks for your time, Xavier. I just really want us to be the ones that work, you know?" Scorpius allowed his voice to share his longing as he spoke, wishing Al was with him now. They were best friends, having both been sorted into Slytherin after wearing the hat for about half a second. Malfoy's house surprised no one, but a Potter in Slytherin was unheard of. Seeing him alone and scared, Scorpius went out of his way to befriend Albus and the rest was history. The boys had been inseparable since Christmas holidays of first year, when they told their families about their friendship. After that, they spent the first half of break with the Malfoys and the second with the Potter. They only spent the first and last 3 weeks summer holiday together, as Draco and Ginny both wanted time with their sons alone, which was how Scorpius had time to do his relationship research. "He's in Slytherin, that should help right? He won't want some big Gryffindor proclamation of love to stay with me, right?

"A Potter is in Slytherin? Merlin's Beard, I thought I'd never see the day! That could very well change the outcome for you, boy. Not necessarily for the better, mind you, but it'll certainly be different." Having nothing more to say, Xavier Malfoy started out for his wife's portrait. She knew about his love for Potter, and they were more like best friends than spouses. Scorpius remained seated, and worried his bottom lip. He had very much hoped that being in the same house would keep them together for the long haul. Even if it hadn't helped, he hadn't expected it to be a problem. Shaking his head, he rose and started to leave the hall. A large mirror to the left of the door caught his attention, and he stopped to look at himself.

He looked like all Malfoy boys did at 16; tall, platinum blonde hair, clear grey eyes. While he did have the traditional Malfoy chin, there were obvious traces of his mother that presented themselves in the latest heir's beauty. He had Astoria's nose and cheek bones, producing what the girls at Hogwarts proclaimed to be "the hottest Malfoy ever". That award had certainly been weird to discover, but it was also how he'd gotten into the ranking club and come out to his family. The ranking club was a group of girls (and later, Scor) that originally set out to rank all the guys at Hogwarts on a standard 1-10 scale. However, they had quickly accomplished that goal and moved on to picking the best looking member of each old wizarding family. While some families, like the Zabini clan, had their most attractive members picked from the past, two were currently attending Hogwarts: Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter. Alright, Scorpius might have used his lead committee member double vote to pick the hottest Potter… but it was certainly the right choice. Albus was a near carbon copy of his father, with emerald green eyes and haystack black hair. Weasley genes, however, made him taller than his father, even at only 16. He also seemed to have inherited a recessive gene for skin that didn't have a freckle or blemish anywhere. Al's skin was naturally tan (no one was sure where that came from either), clear and bizarrely soft for someone who used bar soap. He had earned lean muscles through hard Quidditch training, and the boy seemed to never gain an ounce no matter how many times he ate only dessert for dinner. Scorpius sighed and longed again for Albus's presence as he headed to the dining room for lunch. It had only been 4 days, but he really missed that boy.

**A/N: Once again, I am so very sorry. **


	3. How the Story Began

**CHAPTER TWO: How the Story Began**

**Guys, this shit is way harder than I thought. I'll have whole scenes written in my head, but when I try to type them my brain belongs to a retarded monkey. So… I'm sorry this is so late, but I'm trying. **

"Dad, what happened between you and Mr. Malfoy?" Albus wondered aloud, sitting at the kitchen table, watching his father make pancakes the muggle way before everyone else woke up. In the middle of tossing a pancake into the air, the older man sputtered and dropped his pan onto the floor. He turned slowly to look at his son, expression a mixture of wide-eyed surprise, pain, and apprehension. Harry Potter had worried about this day since his youngest son announced his friendship with Scorpius. He knew that one day his son would develop feelings for Malfoy's, and after that they were all screwed. After all, his own break up with Malfoy had been absolutely wretched and, from what he gathered, so had every Potter/Malfoy break up before them. And now, his son was asking about it. Great.

"What are you talking about, Al?" Feigning ignorance, Harry picked up the dropped frying pan and set it in the sink. Waving his wand, the pan started washing itself. He remained facing away from Al, hoping like hell that his son would chose to drop it rather than ask his old man about his love life. There were very few things he wanted to discuss less with his son than his complicated love affair with Malfoy. Fighting Voldemort? Sure. Sex? Sure. The most volatile, disastrous, fantastic relationship he'd ever had? Not on Merlin's life.

"Well, whenever I talk about him your face gets all twitchy, and whenever you used to take me to Scor's house for breaks you couldn't even look at each other. You guys were in school together, right?" Albus knew much more than he let on, but he wanted to know how much his father would tell him. He knew Mr. Malfoy and his dad were never friends before the war, Uncle Ron's old stories certainly conveyed that much, but there was a 2 year gap between when his father had finished school and when he married Al's mum that no one much talked about. Oh, they talked about Auror training, and Aunt Hermione's research, and his mum's Quidditch but nobody talked about what anyone was actually _doing_ at the time. _And that, _Al thought, _must be when he was with Mr. Malfoy._

"Yeah, we went to school together, and we did our Auror training together. But his family and I were on opposite sides of the war, and so that's why we don't get along. No big story." Giving up on a muggle breakfast, Harry continued his wand work and eggs flew out of the fridge towards the stove. He still hadn't looked at Albus. Undeterred, Al got up from the table and walked to lean on the counter next to his father.

"Really? I figured there was something more. I mean, you're much better around Patricia Goyle's dad. Scor seems to think there's something else. He won't tell me though. Just tells me to ask you. Says it's 'not his place' to tell me." Al's tone changed to something slightly accusatory, and he was now face to face with Harry. He was taller than his dad, but something in the older man's eyes made Albus feel like he was 10 years old again.

"Oh, Merlin. I knew you'd ask eventually." He ran a hand down his face, suddenly looking exhausted. "Just, understand something please. I didn't have anyone to ask. I didn't know about any of this until he told me. I have no idea how to explain this, so just bear with me, alright?" His father's expression troubled, Al's expression worried, the two sat down at the kitchen table while breakfast continued to prepare itself in the background.

"It was the year after the war, and most of the kids in my year decided to return to Hogwarts to do our 7th year, either as a repeat after Snape's reign or for the first time. They called us 8th years, but we were in pretty much all the same classes as the true 7th years. It just so happened that Mr. Malfoy, Draco, and I were in most of the same classes. At first, we avoided each other like the plague. Relations were still tense so soon after the war, and we had a very serious series of altercations our 6th year that left us wary of each other. However, because we were in most classes together, we did get thrown together quite often and soon we became, well I won't say friends, but we were civil to each other certainly."

"What happened 6th year?" Albus didn't really consider it interrupting, since he had paused, technically. He wasn't bored with the story, per say, but this was all pretty standard stuff he had heard before. Of course, the boy had heard other things as well. Moaning Myrtle was quite the gossip when people were nice to her. Harry sighed.

"Son, that story is long, full of regrets, and not entirely applicable to this one. Anyways, we were civil to each other by Halloween. Now, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione got together right after the war so when we went back to Hogwarts they spent a lot of time… together." Al made a face, and Harry laughed. "I got tired of being the third wheel, and for some reason I started studying with Draco. Because of what his parents did at the end of the war he didn't have many friends in Slytherin, and because of what they did at the beginning of the war he didn't have many friends in other houses. I, on the other hand, had tons of people who wanted to be my friend because of what I'd done rather than who I was. At least with Draco, I knew where I stood. So while Ron and Hermione spent most nights that term Merlin knows where doing Merlin knows what, I spent it in the library with Draco. By Christmas, both our grades had improved and we were friends."

"How did Aunt Mione do so well on her N.E.W.T.s if she spent all her time… with Uncle Ron?" Whatever study technique that was, Al wanted to steal it.

"Oh, I have no doubt that I really don't want to know how she got her studying in, since I'm sure it went along with convincing Ron to study, if you catch my drift." Both shuddered lightly. "I really, really do not want to know, especially if they studied anything like us in the spring-"

"EW! DAD! I want to know the story; I do NOT want to know what you DID!" Horror showed plainly on Albus's face at the thought of hearing about his father's sex life.

"I wasn't going in to detail! Anyways, back to the story. That Christmas, we both stayed at Hogwarts. I'm not sure why I didn't go back to the Burrow, I think if I were to be honest with myself I'd say I stayed because he stayed. Not many other people stayed, mostly younger years, so we spent even more time with each other. We didn't study nearly as much, and we were honestly enjoying ourselves. But we were just friends. Then, on Christmas day, everything changed. I woke up and there was a stack of the usual presents: candy, a new Weasley sweater, a book from Hermione. When I had opened all this, there was still a little package left. I unwrapped it, and it was the best present I'd ever gotten. In a little box, there was a stack of pictures of my dad. I went through all of them, just picture after picture of my dad laughing, and my dad smiling, and my dad pulling silly faces. Then in the last picture, my dad kissing Lucius Malfoy."

"Wait… WHAT? Your dad and Scor's grandpa? Seriously?" Albus was shocked. He knew about his own dad and Mr. Malfoy, but had no idea it went back further. One minute he was watching his dad reminisce about Christmas, the next he was spewing tea out of his nose.

"That was about my reaction. After I got over the initial shock of watching my dad mack on Evil Malfoy, I looked back in the box. At the very bottom there was a note from Draco. It said he thought I might like to have these, seeing how his father couldn't do much with them from Azkaban. I immediately got out of bed and took off for The Great Hall. In my pajamas. Barefoot.

Apparently, I had slept in a bit because Draco was leaving the Hall when I got there. I walked up to him, grabbed him, and kissed him. I don't even think it surprised him. I'm sure anyone who saw us either thought they were hallucinating or witnessing a Christmas miracle. Of course, not many people saw us as we didn't stay outside the hall for long. I was the only Gryffindor staying in my dorm, so we… uh… went back there…. And uh…" Harry was blushing profusely, and trailed off. He wasn't sure who was more embarrassed, him or his son. "Anyways, after that we were more than friends, we were together. To most our relationship was the same as it had been all year, but to us everything was different. We were incredibly happy. For once we didn't have anything to worry about except normal school things, and when we were going to see each other. For the rest of the year, even though we were a well-kept secret, our relationship was wonderful. He even made studying for N.E.W.T.s fun. It was after we graduated that the problem emerged.

I was more than ready to come out to the media, and tell everyone that I was very much in love with Draco. I thought we'd only been keeping it a secret so that people at school wouldn't bother us and so that we would have better control over the media coverage when we did tell everyone. He proceeded to correct my assumptions. He still planned to marry Astoria Greengrass when she finished school. She was 2 years behind us in school after the war, and he wanted to know what the point of making a big coming-out deal to the press was when we were only going to be together for 2 more years." At this, Albus made a horrified face. How could Mr. Malfoy be so cruelly insensitive? He could imagine how awful it must be to hear that the person you loved was going to marry someone else. He knew that Scor's parent's marriage was planned, and he remembered the other boy's glee when his father told him that they wouldn't be planning his future for him.

"He had made his own assumptions, of course. He thought I was planning to marry your mother the entire time we were together. Now, Al," Harry began, suddenly worried his son would get the wrong impression, "I love your mother very much. But back then I was so sure my relationship with Draco was a relationship. I was so sure that we were going to be together for, well, forever. But to him, we were just a pre-martial fling. I told him I wouldn't be his place holder and ended it two days after we finished Hogwarts."

"And how successful was that attempt?" Albus asked skeptically. If he knew anything about his father it was that the man didn't give up, whether looking for James's muggle pot stash or convincing his wife that they did, in fact, need a car. He had no doubt that he wouldn't have been able to quit Mr. Malfoy quite that easily. Harry laughed, and got up to pull out dishes and silverware for breakfast. While he talked, breakfast had finished preparing itself in the background. Spooning eggs onto plates, he resigned himself to finishing the story.

"It wasn't. It was an epic fail. The next year involved us showing up unannounced to shag each other senseless then fighting afterwards over the fact that he was still getting married. I always hated us both after he was gone, but I could never stay away for long. It was your mother who got me out, actually. She had spent the year playing Quidditch, but when she hurt her arm she decided to retire and work in the department of Magical Games and Sports. We started spending more time together, and pretty soon we were officially back together. It seemed the more time I spent with her, the less I showed up at his door. Her love got me through." This was the hardest part of the story for Harry to tell his son. He wasn't proud of how anyone had handled anything at that time, certainly not himself.

"So… obviously, since you and Mr. Malfoy were born, your dad's didn't work out either?" It had been eating at the back of Al's brain since his father dropped that little fact bomb, and he couldn't help but ask. It would seem as if the Malfoy/Potter complexities went back more than one generation.

"I knew the day you brought Scorpius home that I'd have to tell you one day. It's always been this way, I'm just glad you have someone to explain it to you." Harry smiled sadly to himself, "But if he's what you want, go for it son. The cycle is gonna break eventually, right?" He returned to the table, plates floating behind him, and patted his son on the shoulder.

Al's jaw dropped, and his eyes widened. "Who said anything about _wanting _Scorpius? I'm straight! He's my best friend! Why… why would you…?" He panicked. Would his dad care? Should he have told him before? Al had known he was gay since 4th year and the disastrous date with Amy Hanson, but had never worked up the courage to tell anyone but his sister, Rose, and Scor. Of course, now that he knew his dad, The Chosen One, was bi…. maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just tell him.

"Albus." Harry said, his voice full of hurt. "Albus. I don't care. I just want you to trust me enough to tell me the truth." He had been sure that is son would finally tell him, if he made it clear that there wouldn't be any judgment or punishment. His son took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then,

"Morning boys!" Ginny said, bustling into the kitchen. Harry and Al both sighed before returning the greeting. "You made breakfast? That's so sweet! Thanks babe." He watched as his mum dropped a kiss on his dad's head before sitting down in front of a plate. The teenager couldn't help but be a little frustrated by her untimely arrival. He had been _so _close to telling his dad. Harry was equally disappointed. He was sure that his son was finally going to tell him the truth.

"I'm not that hungry. I'm going go pack for Scor's." Al started to leave the kitchen, but turned in the doorway and smiled. "And thanks, Dad. You gave me a lot to think about."

After their son had left the kitchen, Ginny turned to look at her husband, puzzled. "Now what was that all about?" There was nothing she hated more than the feeling that one of her babies was keeping something from her.

"Nothing, Dear. He just needed to know how the story began."

**A/N: I don't like this much, and the proof reading was shit, and school's about to start so... yeah. Thanks for reading(:**


End file.
